Comprehension

English encodes class in India. It does so by sliding into the DNA of social division: income, caste, gender, religion or place of belonging. The threat it poses to social cohesion has worried public commentators across the political spectrum. In an address delivered as independent India’s Parliament dilly-dallied over the suggestion to replace English with regional languages as the medium of instruction for higher education, Gandhi said, ‘This blighting imposition of a foreign medium upon the youth of the country will be counted by history as one of the greatest tragedies. Our boys think, and rightly in the present circumstances, that without English they cannot get government service. Girls are taught English as a passport to marriage.’
A hundred years later, the language continues to be seen as a tool of exclusion. The problem now is about inequality of access. ‘To be denied English is harmful to the individual as well as our society,’ writes Chetan Bhagat, self-appointed leader of a class war set off by unequal access to English.
Bhagat, an engineer-turned-investment banker, wrote his first college romance in English in 2004. Then only a certain kind of person—someone who grew up reading, writing and speaking the language—wrote books in English—big words, long sentences, literary pretension, heavy with orientalism. In the ten years since Bhagat put the popular in ‘popular’ English fiction, he has written six other novels and sold millions of copies all told. With every new book, all written in deliberately simple English, Bhagat has recruited thousands of new soldiers in his crusade against what he calls the ‘caste system around the language’. Bhagat even has a term for Indians who ‘have’ English: E1. ‘These people had parents who spoke English, had access to good English-medium schools—typically in big cities, and gained early proficiency, which enabled them to consume English products such as newspapers, books and films. English is so instinctive to them that even some of their thought patterns are in English. These people are much in demand.’ The people E1 presumably control, through a nexus of privilege built on ownership of English, are E2: ‘probably ten times the E1s. They are technically familiar with the language. [But] if they sit in an interview conducted by E1s, they will come across as incompetent, even though they may be equally intelligent, creative or hardworking.’
The situation may not be so comically stark. The haves and have-nots may not exactly fit into Bhagat’s stereotypes of urban, sophisticated rich people and provincial, uncultured poor. His argument does not factor in many other walls around English in India. You are more likely to learn English if you are born a man rather than a woman, high caste rather than low caste, south Indian rather than north Indian. There is more than one kind of E1 and more than one kind of E2. And there is more than one way E2s can overthrow E1s. One is to speak it like they know it.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing the World, by Snigdha Poonam, Penguin Viking, 2018.]

Question: 1

Which of the following can be inferred about the author’s views on English in contemporary India?

Updated On: Aug 2, 2024
  • The ability to speak English in India depends on place and social identity.
  • English is not an Indian language.
  • English language fluency does not necessarily imply competence.
  • People’s views on English are divided along political lines.
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The Correct Option is A

Solution and Explanation

The correct option is (A):The ability to speak English in India depends on place and social identity.
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Question: 2

Who among the following would defy Chetan Bhagat’s neat categorisation of Indian English-speakers into E1 and E2?

Updated On: Aug 16, 2024
  • Savitha, an above-average student in an English medium school in Mumbai, belongs to an upper-middle class family. Public speaking makes her extremely nervous and she fumbles through all her interviews
  • Moin, once a milkman in Ranchi, learns English at the age of 17. After a lot of hard work, he becomes an instructor of spoken English at a thriving institute.
  • Both (A) and (B)
  • Neither (A) nor (B)
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The Correct Option is B

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The correct option is (B):Moin, once a milkman in Ranchi, learns English at the age of 17. After a lot of hard work, he becomes an instructor of spoken English at a thriving institute.
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Question: 3

Which of the following best describes the author’s response to Bhagat’s views on English?

Updated On: Jul 30, 2024
  • The author dismisses his views as a self-appointed expert.
  • The author completely agrees with his views.
  • The author neither agrees nor disagrees with his views
  • The author considers his views and finds that they lack nuance.
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The Correct Option is D

Solution and Explanation

The correct option is (D):The author considers his views and finds that they lack nuance.
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Question: 4

Which of the following can be inferred from Gandhi’s views with respect to English in post-independence India?

Updated On: Aug 16, 2024
  • English should not be taught as a subject in Indian universities.
  • English proficiency is vital in order to gain entry into the bureaucracy.
  • Indian women cannot get rich if they do not know English.
  • None of the above
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The Correct Option is B

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The correct option is (B):English proficiency is vital in order to gain entry into the bureaucracy.
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Question: 5

All the following pairs of words are synonyms, except:

Updated On: Aug 16, 2024
  • stark, sharp
  • sophisticated, spoilt
  • crusade, campaign
  • cohesion, unity
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The Correct Option is B

Solution and Explanation

The correct option is (B):sophisticated, spoilt
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